Sunagakure Camp (Part 2)

"Lady Chiyo, Lord Ebizo is awake. He says he has important intelligence to report to you."

Suddenly, the Command Room doors were thrown open. Chiyo's face darkened as she prepared to reprimand whoever it was. However, upon hearing her subordinate's report, she immediately rushed out and sprinted toward the Medical Department.

The people in the Command Room looked at one another. After a brief hesitation, they followed her to the Medical Department.

In the Medical Department, Ebizo lay painfully facedown on a hospital bed, drinking the medicine someone had prepared for him.

"Big Sister!"

Seeing Chiyo push open the door, Ebizo endured the pain and forced out a smile.

"How are you? Is there anywhere else that hurts?"

Seeing that her younger brother had finally awakened, the taut string in Chiyo's heart, stretched tight for an entire day, finally relaxed. Tears blurred her vision as she asked with concern.

"I'm fine. I got lucky this time. That Konoha youngster apparently didn't know how to use poison, and Shūji's ninja tools weren't poisoned either. I barely managed to keep my life."

Seeing the worry on his sister's face, Ebizo deliberately used a lighthearted tone to cheer her up.

"You still say you're fine? If you'd arrived even a little later, the consequences would have been unimaginable."

After calming down somewhat, Chiyo voiced her doubts. "Didn't our spy hidden in Konoha send word that there were no familiar ninja in the escort team, that they should all have been nobodies?

"Then how could jonin from families like Kurenai Yūhi, Uchiha, and Hyūga have been in the team?"

An inexplicable fury immediately rose in Chiyo's heart. In her view, if the spy's intelligence had not been wrong, Ebizo would not have been at death's door, nor would she have suffered such devastating losses.

As for Shūji, he was not one of their own. If he was gone, then he was gone.

"It was probably a scheme by Konoha's Third Hokage or Kurenai Yūhi. They may have noticed information about our spy, so the jonin team must have joined the main force later. Their purpose was to deliberately make our spy send us false intelligence."

Ebizo's face was filled with regret. Many things could have been guessed with careful thought, yet people always waited until after they happened to regret them.

"Perhaps it was also because we'd had the upper hand in recent small-scale battles against Konoha. I became a little complacent and thought Konoha was nothing special. It's a pity that we lost so many companions for nothing."

Seeing her younger brother in such pain, Chiyo felt miserable as well.

"Sigh, since things have come to this, we can only find a way to make up for it."

"Tell me, how was Shūji subdued?"

At that moment, Chiyo remembered the most important matter.

"His body was wrapped in many thin threads that restricted his movements. At the time, all my attention was on Kurenai Yūhi, and I never expected Shūji to lose to some unknown nobody."

As Ebizo recalled it, he silently regretted his own carelessness.

"Threads? Were they Chakra Threads?"

Chiyo looked equally astonished. Controlling people with Chakra Threads was precisely their family's ninja art, was it not?

"No, they were a different kind of thread. But I never fought him directly, so I don't know the specifics."

Ebizo denied it. As a puppet master, he naturally knew the difference between Chakra Threads and ordinary threads.

"Lady Chiyo, Lord Ebizo, I have a guess."

At that moment, a ninja from the intelligence division stepped forward and spoke respectfully.

"Let's hear it."

Chiyo and Ebizo looked at him at the same time.

"I think this Konoha ninja is very likely the Third Hokage's newly accepted disciple, Watanabe Yūsuke. It is said that he excels at using various thread-based ninja arts and can manipulate them with great flexibility. Perhaps Lord Shūji was defeated by his thread techniques."

The ninja's analysis was logical and well-founded.

Chiyo and Ebizo exchanged a glance, seemingly considering the possibility. They were not unfamiliar with the name Watanabe Yūsuke; after all, he was somewhat famous in Konoha.

"When did you learn that he could use thread-based ninja arts?" Chiyo's gaze sharpened.

"After Lord Ebizo set out. Intelligence from the village arrived then, but since Watanabe Yūsuke was not a combatant, so..."

Damn it. The intelligence had clearly been sent to you long ago. You just didn't have time to read it. The ninja silently took the blame for Chiyo.

"Then why wasn't it sent together with the intelligence on the escort squad?" Chiyo's voice suddenly lost its confidence.

"Lady Chiyo, the identities of our companions undercover in Konoha are highly classified, and they do not know one another.

"The companion who passed along the Escort Mission intelligence sent it directly to the Front Lines, while information from the other companions had to be sent to the village first, then forwarded here by the village. There was naturally a delay," the intelligence ninja explained patiently. "Moreover, when Watanabe Yūsuke defeated a Uchiha jonin with his thread techniques at the training grounds, our spy happened to be investigating the Escort Mission."

"Sigh!"

After hearing this, Chiyo let out a helpless sigh.

"Big Sister, although we didn't succeed this time, we did destroy some of their supplies. It can't be said that we gained nothing, right?"

Ebizo tried to comfort her. He also knew that exchanging the lives of dozens of ninja, including jonin, for several dozen carts of supplies was not worth it.

But under the circumstances, he could not think of anything better to console himself with.

"Focus on recovering. You can rejoin the fighting once your injuries heal!"

After giving her instructions, Chiyo left the Medical Department, her heart heavy with worries.

Halfway there, she suddenly remembered something and turned to ask the intelligence ninja behind her, "Do we have a portrait of Watanabe Yūsuke?"

"No. We only have written intelligence." The unlucky ninja answered.

"Immediately send a request for intelligence to the village. Once we obtain the portrait, confirm at once whether that person is Watanabe Yūsuke."

After issuing the order, Chiyo continued toward the Command Room.

Five days later.

A large number of ninja on the Sunagakure Front Lines were suddenly redeployed, catching Konoha's planted spy completely off guard. He hurriedly searched for an opportunity to pass the intelligence along.

"Lady Chiyo, Konoha has sent us a challenge letter."

A few days after the rotation, a ninja holding a challenge letter hurried into the Command Room, catching Chiyo somewhat unprepared.

"Big Sister, should we accept this challenge?"

Ebizo's injuries were largely healed by then, but his combat strength had yet to recover.

"We must accept it. Otherwise, Sunagakure will become the laughingstock of the ninja world."

Chiyo smiled bitterly. Konoha's challenge letter had completely disrupted her previous plans.

"Pass on my order. In one hour, the heads of every department and every squad will hold an emergency meeting."

Without the slightest hesitation, Chiyo immediately had her assistants spring into action.

Once most of the people had arrived, Chiyo's words struck like a depth charge, stirring up an uproar and catching everyone off guard.

"Everyone, prepare for a decisive battle against Konoha at Sunset Gorge in two days!"